Making Democracy Safe for Democracy

Today something remarkable is happening in the nation's capital. The House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee is actually overseeing something. In this case, it is the condition of Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Thanks to the Washington Post, we have learned that veterans returning from the Iraq War, many of whom had horrible injuries resulting in amputations, were placed in rooms that were infested with mice and cockroaches, and full of mold. Many of these soldiers faced shameful maltreatment and neglect.

Thanks to the voters, after six years of the rubber-stamp Republican Congress which did not oversee anything except their golf scores while being flown by lobbyists on private jets, the new Congress is beginning to fulfill its Constitutional oversight responsibility. Unlike the people who spout empty slogans and place magnets on their cars, the leaders now runnng Congress know the true meaning of the phrase "support the troops." We should also thank the Washington Post and other news organizations who, in the absence of Congressional oversight during the past six years, stepped into the vacuum and exposed illegal and abhorrent conduct by the Bush Administration, including Abu Ghraib, prisoner torture, NSA spying on American citizens, the kidnapping of suspects and sending them to countries to be tortured (euphemistically called "rendition"), and more.

It's a new day.